


To Boldly Go...

by Merfilly



Category: Star Trek - Various Authors, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Ficlet Collection, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 15:49:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5671501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Star Trek in many eras</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Boldly Go...

**Author's Note:**

> Ratings vary by ficlet

"You're starting to notice people again."

Ro Laren tried to glare as Guinan joined her in the small booth, but she was too honest to deny it… at least to Guinan. The woman had offered her far more insight and ability to compensate for her own anger than anyone else ever had.

"There's no harm in watching others. You do it all the time," she stated instead.

"I do. And sometimes, I see things among them I want to experience. You?"

That made Ro look around, seeing the casual intimacy, both of the platonic and romantic kind, all around her. She was getting soft, but yes, a part of her ached for that.

Guinan didn't need a verbal answer, as she leaned forward to caress Ro's hand where it rested on her drink. "It's not all out of reach, if you just take a step."

Ro looked at her skeptically, mouth opening to shoot of an angry criticism. The knowing, lonely look she found in Guinan's eyes stopped her.

"I think I want experience too," she said instead.

It didn't take much more time to finish the drinks they had and rise to leave, to find that experience.

+++++

Cleante reached out hesitantly, using her thumb to trace the upsweep of one eyebrow, trailing her hand further. She actually stopped, though, rather than touch those ears… and T'Shael shifted her head to invite it. Very carefully, changing from thumb to two fingers, Cleante caressed the outer edge of the ear, mesmerized by the faintest shiver in her friend.

"You're sure?" she asked quietly, licking at her lips in worry over damaging what they had been for and with each other.

"You are my chosen, and you have chosen me," T'Shael said in a voice as soft, but more certain. "It is best, Cleante, that we explore the nature of physical contact, before the choice is taken from us, by my biology. Unless — "

"No!" Cleante surged closer to T'Shael, radiating an almost desperate need to cut those words off. "T'Shael, everything. You for me, to me, with me, and the same from me to and for and with you!" 

T'Shael nodded and then brought her own fingers up to trace Cleante's face. "Then, we go forward, together," she said, inviting more of this exploration.

+++++

Jean-Luc set the last of the food in the middle of the table, his eyes more on Beverly to see how she reacted. Her smile and appreciative sounds were as warming for his soul as listening to fine music. 

"You spoil me," she said with a lilt in her voice that only encourage plans for the next time he could do just that.

"You deserve every moment of it," he assured her, sitting to share the dinner he had made for them."

"Flattery gets you everything," she answered.

He smiled at that, before pouring the wine, so that the meal could commence.

+++++

"Gentlemen," Jim began, raising his glass. Bones followed suit, joined less quickly by Spock who still found 'toasts' something of a curiosity. "To life, and whatever she holds for us as we go forward."

"Together, with each other to guard against the rough spots," Bones added to that.

"As is logical, given the experiences shared so far," Spock had to chime in with, just to get Bones to give him that exasperated look, and Jim to smile softly at him.

The glasses clinked, and each sipped their drinks in benediction to the future they anticipated, this night before they officially embarked on their second mission together aboard the _Enterprise_.

+++++

Beverly looked up as Deanna came in, reading the set of her face and body to deduce the nature of the crisis.

"Will's coming here," she began. "And… it's not good."

Deanna gave a smile, but shook her head. "He's been offered an admiralty."

"Oh." That would mean Will would be off a ship, stationed on some planet or space station large enough to rate such a high rank, and out of the action. "He's not ready."

Deanna nodded at that. "He knows it. So he's coming here to think on it, and ask us for help to sabotage Starfleet's intentions." That provoked a giggle from both women, but Beverly nodded.

"We can do that." Will was theirs, even if he preferred space long past the age where settling down would have been acceptable. They'd help him out of this snag.

+++++

The Klingon moved to carry out his threat, and David tried to interfere.

Saavik refused to think in that moment, letting her survival instincts take over, Vulcan training giving way to her childhood memories.

David could not die; she had chosen him for her own. The sound of a disruptor could be heard, but Saavik was strong enough to turn a Klingon, and she spun the murderous captain into the beam, continuing to mve when she had nothing to hold onto. The one with the disruptor was too shocked to react fast enough, and David was moving as well. Even Spock, lacking anything but instinct, had moved when the struggle turned so violent. Through it all, Admiral Kirk's voice barked out of a communicator, seeking answers. Less than one full minute later, Saavik was able to pick it up and answer.

"We are in control of the planet, Admiral," she said calmly. The deaths had been necessary; she would not mourn for her lapse of calm. 

"We'll get you out of there soon enough," Kirk promised her.

Saavik met David's eyes, and knew this was the beginning of a future shared.

+++++

Uhura handled the kora carefully, amazed at the level of detail in this replica of an ancient instrument. "Christine, it is beautiful." She looked up at her friend graciously. "I've read about them, but they were traditional to a specific group of people," she added. "And mostly extinct, outside of museums."

"There was a dealer here, who works with a replication team, bringing back lost instruments around the galaxy," Christine told her. "I read the history, and felt it suited you more than any of the others I saw there."

"You'll be the first to hear me play, then, once I have studied more, and mastered its tuning," Uhura promised her. "Deal?"

"Deal."

+++++

Sulu paused at the edge of cover, looking all around, anticipating danger. When he was positive it was safe to move again, he start dashing for the next bit of cover.

The sting of a hit told him he'd not been careful enough, and he scrambled faster. Looking down and over his own hip, he saw the lurid red and knew who had done this. Only, where had she been? He scanned back the way he'd come from, and spotted motion, up high on a platform.

"No one ever looks up," Uhura called, coming down and walking over now that she'd fired a 'crippling' shot. "You were the last, though."

"And your title as paint ball queen holds true one more time," Sulu said, grinning with pride in her, and at having outlasted all the other players. 

"Best discovery we ever made, researching old Earth games," Uhura said, linking her arm in his to join the rest in the after-game celebration.

+++++

Jim Kirk would never admit that the incidental touch of is First Officer's fingers on his shoulder to emphasize a point was a comfort. It didn't happen often, always when the bridge crew was too focused on the forward screen to notice. But it was there, this tiny piece of physical assurance that was deliberately against Spock's upbringing. 

Often, after those tense missions, once they were both relieved from bridge duty, Jim found Spock at his quarters instead of needing to go find him. Those small touches on the shoulder would blossom into many caresses and kisses, affirming their lives entwined in one another in the most human way possible. 

+++++

Odo closed his eyes as Kira reached out, the touch of her fingers on his skin making him fight to hold onto his shape. 

"You came back?" she whispered.

"I have taught all I could, and have never lost the pull you have on me." He reached now, wanting to touch her and know that this was truly real.

She went with that, tucking in against his chest, shedding the stern Commander in favor of being just the woman who loved Odo.

"We're together, now, always," she told him, defying fate to be any other way.

"Yes," he fervently agreed.

+++++

The light trail of fingertips across her bare shoulders is soothing as well as the first warning that Beverly is no longer alone. She doesn't bother to open her eyes from where she soaks in the heated, gently rippling bath of mineral water. The touch had conveyed a sense of person, and it is a touch she knows well.

"I didn't think you were going to make it," she says softly.

The water shifts at the entry of another body, and then Beverly feels a hand brush hers beneath the surface.

"I wanted to be certain we would not be disturbed this time," Deanna answers, and it makes Beverly smile.

"Good."

+++++


End file.
